Ilkeston - Weekend Wander
w/e 03 July 2022
All of this week's pictures were taken with a Nikon D3300
Saturday afternoon and no new
photos for this page. Weather forecast for showers so what to
do? It looks like a weekend wander then so with nowhere in particular
in mind and ready to dodge the raindrops, we set off into the
town centre.
By three o'clock we'd finished our walk and were waiting for
a bus at the bottom of Bath Street to take us back home. This
is the last photo taken looking up Bath Street towards the Market
Place. The market traders were packing up when we had passed
them earlier, not many of the shops were open and to all intents
and purposes, Ilkeston was closed. In truth there were not many
people about at all and those that were, were mainly in vehicles.
The price of fuel doesn't seem to be having a big impact but
we had walked to here and the rest of the photos on this page
show some of the places we passed on the way.
The first stop on our walk was at the southern end of Chalons
Way at the area still known as White Lion Square. The White Lion
pub along with many other buildings in this area was demolished
some years ago before Chalons Way was built. As usual during
the summer the railings around the island was bedecked with flowers
troughs.
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The large island at this major
road junction that has five circular flower beds on it, was decorated
for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee with the Union Flag design.
It is looking better as every day passes and will be at its best
with the white flowers showing through more just in time for
the visit of the "In Bloom" judges. Three of the five
beds can be seen in this picture.
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Also ready for the "In Bloom" judges will be the new
wildflower bed that has been created in front of Toll Bar House
on the Derby Road exit from the island.
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We continued our walk up South Street to the Market Place and
with the rain threatening, popped into the Library for a browse
while it passed. We left and walked across the Market Place where
the flowers in the beds around the War Memorial and in the tubs
are already in full bloom.
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 There are more flowers behind
the railings in front of the Town Hall and a sign on those railings
reads "Britain In Bloom UK Finalist 2022 with the RHS".
Next door to the Town Hall the Sir John Warren is making its
own effort to brighten the town centre ready for the judges arriving
with a fine display of hanging baskets both here at the front
and at the rear of the property on Pimlico.
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Inevitably our walk took us past the Warren and along New Lawn
Road to Victoria Park.
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After a look at the wildflower area and insect hotel on the Bristol
Road side of the park we made our way into the centre where the
Long Border is overflowing with flowering plants and bushes.
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But the pièce de résistance of course is the central
area where the flower beds are looking splendid.
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The Council's Green Space Team have created several new wildflower
beds at various places in the town this year and as we were heading
toward the exit at the lower end of Bristol Road we spotted another
one in the park. This one is much more colourful than the already
established area in the park we had passed earlier.
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This one reminded me of the Frank Sinatra song "New York,
New York" - so good I had to photograph it twice. I actually
photographed several more times as well from different angles
but selected this one to show off the mix of flowers. From here
we headed for the bottom of Bath Street and one more photo -
the one at the top of this page. Ilkeston on Saturday afternoon
may have been closed but the flowers were certainly open.
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